20 February 2006

Henry Rollins: Terrorist!

From Sploid, here's a story about Mr. Henry Rollins, once front man for Black Flag (saw 'em several times with Hank in the lead: in Boston twice, I think, and Nashville, once, and -- now this is totally lame -- also have been to a couple of his "spoken word performances" and have several of his self-published books of rants (image of one featured, right). Note to self: See how much those puppies might be worth on eBay), sometimes movie actor, and occasionally TV yapper, having been narked on to the Australian government through an anonymous tip as a potential terrorist by someone sitting next to him on a flight.

Why? Because he was reading Jihad: The Rise Of Militant Islam In Central Asia. (Inner quotes from Henry's blog.)

Rollins received a letter warning him of his status as a suspected terrorist from a "nice lady" in the Australian government:

The person who sat next to you on the flight from New Zealand does not agree with your politics or choice of reading and so nominated you as a possible threat. As they were too cowardly or stupid to leave their details I can’t call them to discuss their idiocy with them.

In his response to the kindly tipster the former Black Flag frontman noted the irony that the book is written by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, one of America's more conservative newspapers, and was published by Yale University, President Bush's alma mater.

The D.C. native then asked the woman to send along a message to her higher-ups:

Please tell your government and everyone in your office to go f*ck themselves. Tell them twice. If your boss is looking for something to do, you can tell him I suggest he go f*ck himself. Baghdad's safer than my hometown and your PM is a sissy. You have a nice night.

Though firmly against the war in Iraq and no fan of President Bush, Rollins is an unassailable patriot and supporter of the Armed Services. During the Christmas season he made his sixth USO tour.

Truly, we live in nutzo times. Not only can fundamentalist religious yahoos basically get away with telling other people what they can publish, but also scared wussies at the other end of the spectrum are trying to make it difficult for people to read what they want to read. Argggh.